Portland, Seattle and Atlanta all coming out on top of the 2007 Draft Lottery was a far more unlikely outcome than anything the Orlando Magic pulled off in 1993. Going in, you knew one of the mid-level teams had a decent chance of sneaking into the top three. But the chances that Memphis, Boston and Milwaukee -- all three of the worst teams in the league -- would all be pushed out of the top three were almost nil. Okay, I'm exaggerating, but they were still pretty damn low.

Expect the weighing of the lottery odds to come under plenty of scrutiny in the next few days. But the lottery itself can be an unsolvable dilemma. Is weighing the odds more in favor of the near-playoff teams hurting the teams that are legitimately terrible? Is tipping the scale more towards the basement dwellers encouraging teams to throw games? We need John Hollinger or the guys at 82games.com to create some sort of "Tanking Algorithm" or "Laziness Index" to get to the bottom of this.

See previous comments of mine about the league being a mess that Stern can't solve. Beyond all of the inconsistent officiating and suspensions, think about the absurdity of not giving the worst team the first pick, the second worst team the second, etc. The lottery is the dumbest idea ever, and I can't believe it's still around.